CAR PARKING AND RENTAL

Auckland Airport revamps leadership team and names new General Manager Retail – 03/12/08

NEW ZEALAND. Auckland Airport today announced a revamped organisational structure and leadership team which it said would “lead the next stage in the growth of New Zealand’s gateway”.

The new Auckland Airport leadership structure comprises three profit-centre divisions of Aeronautical, Retail and Property, supported by a new aeronautical business development unit and a lean corporate centre.

The responsibilities of the former Engineering division have been incorporated into other divisions.

Chief Executive Officer Simon Moutter said: “The focus in recent years at Auckland Airport has been very much on building infrastructure and capacity. Moving forward the leadership emphasis will be on ensuring we make the most of our recent infrastructure investment and enhance services to our airline customers and passengers. In essence, the focus will be on ‘people not planes’.

“The shift in focus away from building infrastructure and capacity to building customer and passenger experience has meant realigning leadership team resources. This has seen the introduction of several new faces and new roles, and the departure in November of General Manager Engineering, Steve Reindler.

“The arrival in November of Andrew Pirie as Strategic Communications Advisor, and the arrivals early next year of Glenn Wedlock as the General Manager Aeronautical Business Development and Adrian Littlewood as the General Manager Retail means the final pieces of the leadership team jigsaw are in place.”

Littlewood will join Auckland Airport in February 2009, assuming responsibility for the car parking and retail businesses, including duty free, speciality retail and food & beverage. He will also take charge of passenger experience, brand and marketing activities.

He joins from Telecom, where his most recent role has been in the mass-market retail business, and replaces Nick Forbes who moved to Irish travel retailer Aer Rianta International in November as Global Operations Director.

Moutter concluded: “With tougher global economic conditions and volatile fuel prices influencing likely passenger and airfreight demand, it is critical that Auckland Airport puts significantly more focus on business development activity, partner support and working on new growth strategies.

“It will also be essential that we focus on productivity gains through all levels of the business. We now have the leadership team and structure in place to do this.”

October traffic figures

In other Auckland Airport news, international passenger traffic was flat in October 2008 compared to October 2007, at 543,979. International arrivals slipped by -1.1% while departures rose by +1.5%. Passengers arriving on vacation slipped by -9.4% compared to a year ago, which Auckland Airport blamed on the "current economic conditions".

Major markets showing a downward trend in arrivals were China (-29%), Korea (-22.3%) and the US (-14.1%).

Pacific Blue's trans-Tasman service to Sydney began in mid-October while its service to Melbourne began in September. These routes added 255 international aircraft movements in October this year.

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